Hand-operated wrapping and sealing appliance.



I I H. A. SEVIGNE. HAND OPERAIED WRAPPING AND SEALING APPLIANCE. APPLICATION mm JULY 11. 1914.

1,259,308, Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

Q9/ 41 0/. L t f g/ y H. A. SEVIGNE. HAND OPERATED WRAPPING AND SEALING APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY l7, I914.

Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- HENRI A. snvrems, or WINTER-0P,

nu'n REnrHs T0 CARTER, RIcE MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF FIFTY-FIVE ONE- 86 COMPANY, CORPORATION, OF BOSTON, MASSA- CHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

HAND-OPERATED WRAPPING AND SEALING APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 17, 1914. Serial No. 851,503.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRI A. Srivremi, of Winthrop, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hand- Operated Wrapping and Sealing Apphances, of which the following is a speclfication.

This invention relates to the wrapping and sealing of articles such as loaves of bread, the invention having for its prlncipal object to provide an appllance whereby the articles will be mainly automatically wrapped and folded in what is known as waxed paper, the overlying flaps of the wrapper being automatically sealed, all of this being done while the loaf is being transmitted through the appliance by the users hands.

In my Patent 1,117,260 for wrapping machines granted November 17, 1911, I illustrate, describe and claim a machine whlch transmits the loaves through the machine and automatically wraps and seals the same.

The present mvention provides for a simi-' lar method of wrapping and sealing, but the mechanism is exceedingly simplified chlefly because of the omission of all mechanism for either measuring the size of the wrappers, or for causing the loaves to travel through the machine. This results 1n the production of an appliance of low cost, especially adapted for the use of small bakers whose output is not so large as to require the employment of machmery to securethe utmost rapidity of wrapping and sealing. My invention consists in the improvements which I shall now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying drawings:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an appliance embodying the present lmprovements, parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of ance; and

Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive are perspectlve'vlews illustrating the different steps of the wrap ping and sealing operation.

Szmilar reference characters lndicate S1II11- lar parts in all of the views.

A'table 12, suitably supported as by legs 13, has a portion of its upper surface occupied by a heating plate 14. This plate may the applibe heated either electrically or by means of fluld such as heated liquid or steam supplied by means of a pipe 15 (Fig. 2).

V Vh1le the bottom of the guideway for the articles is supplied by the table 12 and heatng plate 14 and a cooling extension herelnafter referred to, the sides of such guideway are provided by straight parallel yieldingly mounted walls or plates 16, which are illustrated as having horizontally outwardly pro]ect1ng pins 17 mountedin apertures in brackets or standards 18, 19. Springs 20, on said pins 17 between the walls 16 and the supportmg brackets, serve to yieldingly hold the guide plates or walls 16 in inner positlons. The front ends of theplates 16 are flared and curved, as at 21 to constitute folders for the corners of the wrappers as hereinafter explained,

Pivotally mounted on posts 22 rising from the table, are folders 23 for other corner portions of the wrappers, said foldersbeing referably yieldingly held toward each other y means of springs 24, the inner limit of movement of said folders being determined by suitable stops 25. Also supported by the posts'22 are breakers'26. These breakers are preferably thin at their inner widened ends so as to yield. these breakers may be rigidly supported by the posts 22.

The two pairs of folders 21, 23, and the breakers 26, are similar in construction and operation to the breakers and folders illustrated and described in my Patent 1,117,260.

At one side of the front portion of the table 12 is a bracket 27 to support a roll of wrapper material I). I do not limit myself to the employment of a roll, however, since previously cut sheets may be employed. Preferably the wrapper material consists of paraflined paper, or what is known as waxed paper, or paper having a sufficiently heavy coating of wax or paraffin to enable the overlapping flaps of the wrapped package to be sealed by the application of heat, followed by a chilling or congealing efiect. When a roll of paper is employed, as illustrated in Fig. 1, I preferably provide a severing knife 28 mounted to slide vertically in suitable guides provided in or by a frame 29, said knife being connected by links 30 with elbow levers 21 pivotally Patented Mar. 12, ms.

When so constructed 7 levers 31 bein supported by the frame 29, the two elbow connected by a rod 32 one end of which is connected to a third elbow lever 33 ivotally supported by the frame 29, the otl fer arm of the elbow lever 33 being connected by a rod 34 to a suitable foot treadle not necessary to illustrate. To enable the user to readily determine the amount of wrapper material to be drawn from the roll, according to the length of the loaves of bread to be wrapped, a stop 35 is' mounted on the table, said stop fitting a guide slot 36 and having an adjusting screw 37 The top of the table may have a scale 38 to facilitate the proper posltioning of the 35. ear the rear end of the table is a rock shaft 39 mounted in bearings provided in the upper portions of standards 19, said rock shaft havin an arm 40 to which a pressure plate 42 is plvotally connected as at 43. The rock shaft also has an arm 44 provided with an adjustable stop-screw 45 which is adapted to abut against one side of one of the standards 19 to limit the lowermost position to which the arm 40 can descend. The plate 42, carried by the arm 40, extends rearwardly to any preferred extent, its front end being preferably curved upwardly so that the wrapped loaves, when pushed along under said plate as hereinafter described, will be held with suificient pressure upon both the heating plate and the cooling plate also if desired, to insure proper contact of the wrafpped package with heating and cooling sur sto aces to first soften the wax of the paper and then congeal it.

The cooling surface across which the wrapped packages find their exit mayconsist of asuitably supported reticulated platform 46, such as wire mesh.

In operation, the user either takes a cut sheet of waxed paper I) and lays it upon the table 12 against the stop 35, or draws oflz' paper from the roll. In the latter case the knife 28 will next be operated to cut the paper. Then the user lays the article, such as a loaf of bread a, upon the sheet of wrap- V ping material, the article being on its side, and with one hand carries the farther edge of the wrapper over the article to the position indicated in Fig. 3. The user then simply pushes the article and its wrapper into the guideway. This movement first causes the breakers 26 to act upon the end portions 1 c of the wrapper to carry such portions to the position shown in Fig. 4. Continued movement causes the folders 21 to first turn up-the projecting folds d, andimmediately thereafter the folders 23 turn down the rojecting folds e, so that the article an its wrapper will be as indicated in Fig. 5. At

. this point the user momentarily stops pushing t e loaf and with the fingers turns in the ends and corner portions 9 to the positions indicated in Fig. 6, and immediately thereafter turns down the edge flap h, so that the article and its wrapper will then be in the condition indicated in Fig. 7, and also indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1. The user, having performed this hand manipulation, then simply grasps the article and its wrap, per, while in the condition shown in Fig. 7 and gives it a quarter turn, the lower longitudinal corner which isthen nearest the operator being slid or pushed rearwardly so that the bottom of the loaf and the final flap '11 will be underneath, this position being indicated in Fig. 8, and by full lines in Fig. 1. When in this condition the article may be leftfor a brief time upon the heating plate 14, the pressure plate 42 bearing upon it, the user during this time manipulating the next loaf and its wrapper in thesame manner as just described. When the next loaf has gone through the operations just described and is pushed rearwardly, said next loaf pushes the preceding one, and all those that have preceded it, along overthe heating plate and the cooling plate with a sliding effect upon the bottom'most flap z, thus ironing out orbottom of the loaf or article a. It will now be understood that I have provided an appliance which will greatly facilitate the hand-wrapping and sealing of articles such as loaves of bread, said appliance having a straight guideway, the bottom of which is flat and stationary, said guideway having straight upright sides, the guideway being sufliciently open to permit the article to be pushed from one end to the other by hand, means being provided for heating one end of the guideway while permitting the other end to remain cool, the appliance also having folders which will convert portions of the wrapper into flafps, and overlay them upon other portions 0 the wrapper 111 such manner that the sealin efi'ect hereinbefore described can be obtained before. there is any springing out or opening.

While I have illustrated means for heating only the bottom portion of the guideway, the side portions also might be heated in a similar manner, or as illustrated and described in my patent hereinbefore referred to. If desired, sliding tuckers orfolders simipossibi lity of the inwardly folded flaps lar to those employed in the machine illustrated in my said patent, which tuckers or folders maybe operated by a suitable foot treadle, may be added to the appliance, so

that instead of folding the ortions d, e, h

by hand as herein described, such folding may be done by such tuckers or folders.

What I claim is:

comprismg a table, guides supported by said An appliance of the character described, 5

table, folders at the entrance end of said termining means being located relatively to guides, a heating plate in said table, a supthe said guides to insure proper folding port for a roll of wrapper material, a knife without lateral shifting of t e severed secsupported by said table and adaptedto be tion of material.

5 operated to sever the wrapping material In testimony whereof I have alfixed my 15 after the latter has been drawn from the roll signature, in presence of two witnesses.

across the table in tront of the guides and HENRI A. SEVIGNE. folders, and means for determining the posi- Wit tion for the advancing edge of material A. W. HARRISON,

10 drawn from the roll, said knife and de- ARTHUR F. RANDALL. 

